Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

[choptop]

Why? Why would anyone care? It's a dead franchise now, you'll never see another Mamoa Aquaman movie regardless of whatever legs this has. And Mamoa himself won't be hurt by this. First one was fine, though I struggled to remember it a few minutes late. But it was bright and colorful and had some interesting stuff in it, so there you go. Might even free Mamoa to do Lobo. Which could be good or bad, now that I think of it.

It's a good movie it deserves to make money.

[Lightning Rider]

Saw the film this weekend. Seems like a case of learning the wrong lessons from the first. In the first film, the spectacle and intruige of discovering a new world papered over the cringey dialogue and poor characterization of Momoa. Here they doubled down on the man-child behavior and the spectacle & conflict wasn't enough to distract from it. It's like we're back at Aquaman just being a big joke, just in a different way.

Editing was truly bizarre at times, and once again Manta is underserved.

More than ready to move on from this "vision" of Arthur & his family.

[Gaastra]

Aquaman did good in japan. But can it break the $400m dcu curse? Can it make it, or will that curse be on the dcu forever?

[GamerSlyRatchet]

I saw it last weekend. It was okay. I didn't have as much fun with it as I did with the first. Mamoa as Aquaman didn't do anything for me and found Orm to be the more compelling protagonist, even if his story arc is pretty cliche. The plot was also cliche and the humor attempts all felt weak. Black Manta was easily the highlight, though. Great costume, more memorable moments, and I liked the "hater" vibe they gave him. His lair and henchmen looked cool and I particularly like the spoilers:

the callback to Arthur refusing to save his father with him trying to save Manta in vain

end of spoilers. And hey, Topo had an active role this time!

[Scott Taylor]

This was a really good movie. Like the Flash, I was happy with it and thought it was pretty comic booky.

As with the first film, Manta was great. You may not like the characterization, though, because he was kind of easy to beat. And he was essentially in mind control for the entire movie and when he was himself all he would do is say something spiteful to Aquaman or whichever other good guy was around, then get hurt or die just to spite them. But he looked awesome and was consistent with the first film. Really liked him as a recurring side villain in these two movies.

Dr. Shin was again a standout, like Randall Park always is in every role. And Orm was kind of more interesting than Arthur at points. In a way, I would have liked it if he had been chosen to play Aquaman, if they were doing the character in a more serious way especially. The whole bonding stuff between the two brothers worked for me and gave the movie a nice human touch. Jason Momoa was himself, which was fine.

Everything looked incredible, same as the first movie. Though - it was funny in retrospect that every single place where they spent a lot of time, save Atlantis, was not underwater. My guess was that it was so Shin could be involved. The movie even goes so far as to have a land rescue with an actual octopus running around in the desert, in sand. Ridiculous! Anakin would hate that part! The action and fight choreography was super good and engaging. There really wasn't a time when I got bored with it, something I could not say about films like Shazam and Wonder Woman. James Wan seems to like to put in little interesting surprises in his fight sequences.

Now there was a bit about global warming. And when they went there my eyes started to go into pre-roll phase a bit, because I figured we were about to hear a sermon. But the movie surprised me by outright saying that Atlantis was the worst polluter in history, basically. And no preaching, just kind of stated it and didn't get into any arguments about it. The bad ancient king guy behind everything sort of wanted to pollute like crazy, but it was among many things he was after.

The ending scene was a nice closeout, very awesome. I will miss this little corner of the DCEU.

[krazijoe]

Am I the only one who thought all of Manta's crew were left overs from Planet X???

[Scott Taylor]

Am I the only one who thought all of Manta's crew were left overs from Planet X???

Hilarious!

The henchmen were a standout for me, because so many of them seemed to believe that they were main characters. Even as they would get beat, many looked so hurt and disappointed. That was direction, and I was there for it.

[Lightning Rider]

Am I the only one who thought all of Manta's crew were left overs from Planet X???

I was kind of surprised that at least some of them weren't black. Did I make up that his henchmen were black in his first scene in the first movie? Or were he and his dad the only dudes who took their helmet off?

[Jim Kelly]

I liked AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, just as I liked the first AQUAMAN. However, I can appreciate that some might not like the second movie if they didn't like the first one or they were only lukewarm on the first one. Tastes vary. What I don't understand is the great disparity of opinion on the first and the second movie coming from the same reviewers.

If someone was wildly enthusiastic about the first movie, I don't think they would be so utterly disappointed in the second movie--they wouldn't sing the praises of the first movie and label the second movie as absolute crap. But if they were in the middle of the road about both movies, that would make sense to me. Some people are so down on the second movie, because of outside circumstances that have nothing to do with the movie itself. And Warner-Discovery did the movie no favours, either. Sensing which way the wind was blowing, some reviewers may have cranked down their reviews of the second movie to meet expectations.

To me both movies are rather alike. Their strengths are similar as are their weaknesses. I found the first movie took a long time to get into the actual plot and when it did get into the plot there was a lot of expositional dialogue I had a hard time hearing and understanding--the same thing with the second movie. In both movies, once the two main characters went on their fetch quest things picked up and built toward the final battle and the entry into a lost world.

The movies are two sides of the same coin. I would compare them favourably to the first two MUMMY movies starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz (which I only got around to watching after I saw the first AQUAMAN movie). While the first MUMMY might be the better movie, the second one does what the first one did, so it's a nice follow-up. Whereas, even though I liked both WONDER WOMAN movies, the second one is substantially different from the first movie--so it makes sense if people who loved the first movie might hate the second movie (apples and oranges).

There are a few action sequences in the first AQUAMAN that I liked better. However, I like Patrick Wilson better as an actor and he had a lot more to do in the second movie. In an alternate universe, I imagine he's Arthur Curry and Jason Momoa is Orm. I enjoyed Wilson's redemption arc in this movie. Maybe redemption arcs are an unoriginal narrative convention--but if we abandoned all redemption arcs, we would have to throw out most of the novels ever written. The development of the fraternal relationship could go places that the first movie's romantic relationship couldn't--and with Wilson in that role, he could do a lot more with the scenes he was given.

And this movie replays a plot from the AQUAMAN comics of the late 1970s--a plot that had an outcome I hated. In this movie the plot goes in the opposite direction from the 1970s story. And I felt finally redeemed after all these decades--to get the ending that I so wanted but was denied back then. For that alone this movie ranks high for me. From now on this is my official version of that story--not the one in the comic books.

[CliffHanger2]

I liked AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, just as I liked the first AQUAMAN. However, I can appreciate that some might not like the second movie if they didn't like the first one or they were only lukewarm on the first one. Tastes vary. What I don't understand is the great disparity of opinion on the first and the second movie coming from the same reviewers.

If someone was wildly enthusiastic about the first movie, I don't think they would be so utterly disappointed in the second movie--they wouldn't sing the praises of the first movie and label the second movie as absolute crap. But if they were in the middle of the road about both movies, that would make sense to me. Some people are so down on the second movie, because of outside circumstances that have nothing to do with the movie itself. And Warner-Discovery did the movie no favours, either. Sensing which way the wind was blowing, some reviewers may have cranked down their reviews of the second movie to meet expectations.

To me both movies are rather alike. Their strengths are similar as are their weaknesses. I found the first movie took a long time to get into the actual plot and when it did get into the plot there was a lot of expositional dialogue I had a hard time hearing and understanding--the same thing with the second movie. In both movies, once the two main characters went on their fetch quest things picked up and built toward the final battle and the entry into a lost world.

The movies are two sides of the same coin. I would compare them favourably to the first two MUMMY movies starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz (which I only got around to watching after I saw the first AQUAMAN movie). While the first MUMMY might be the better movie, the second one does what the first one did, so it's a nice follow-up. Whereas, even though I liked both WONDER WOMAN movies, the second one is substantially different from the first movie--so it makes sense if people who loved the first movie might hate the second movie (apples and oranges).

Eh I think the main difference is the 1st movie had some jokes. But the second kinda turned AM and Orm into jokes imho. It's impossible to take Orm seriously after those bug jokes. And Momoa's AM instead of moving forward and maturing a little seems to have regressed into more juvenile behavior. I can see how those things could ruin the movie for someone who liked the 1st one. The movie is amazing visually and I've seen it twice already.. But I feel the 1st movie had a lot more dignity.

[Batgrayson]

Eh I think the main difference is the 1st movie had some jokes. But the second kinda turned AM and Orm into jokes imho. It's impossible to take Orm seriously after those bug jokes. And Momoa's AM instead of moving forward and maturing a little seems to have regressed into more juvenile behavior. I can see how those things could ruin the movie for someone who liked the 1st one. The movie is amazing visually and I've seen it twice already.. But I feel the 1st movie had a lot more dignity.

Yeah, Mera wasn't telling jokes during first movie, it was Arthur. Now is Arthur telling even more jokes and making fun of Orm. Momoa needed someone who was opposite to his portray of funny Aquaman, instead, he got a sidekick

[CliffHanger2]

Yeah, Mera wasn't telling jokes during first movie, it was Arthur. Now is Arthur telling even more jokes and making fun of Orm. Momoa needed someone who was opposite to his portray of funny Aquaman, instead, he got a sidekick

Yeah and Orm didn't even know AM was making a doofus out of him lol. I def didn't stay for the last scene on the second viewing.

[Scott Taylor]

The jokes were playing off of a popular myth that lobsters are related to cockroaches. I took it as Aquaman also enjoyed cockroaches. Its not as if they capitalized on the joke by having Orm get laughed at for it in the movie. If anyone saw him as the butt of a joke, it was only the audience and not anyone in the movie.

[Brian Adkins]

Aquaman 2 wasn't a complete failure somehow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au_B9-sOo6U

[Captain Craig]

It is going to cross $400m Worldwide by the weekend or during this last full weekend of January.

AM2.jpg

It was still in the top 10 as of Monday daily numbers at position #8.